William Passmore Carlin (1829-1903) was a native of Illinois who graduated from West Point in 1850 and served on frontier duty and in Utah before the Civil War. Carlin began his Civil War career as colonel of the 38th Illinois Infantry and served in the early battles in Missouri and Mississippi. He commanded troops in the important battles of Perryville, Stones River, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard Roost, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, the siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro, and Bentonville. A successful brigade and division commander from Perryville to Sherman's March to the Sea and march through the Carolinas until the end of the war, Carlin retired in 1893 as a brigadier general. The writings of Carlin offer the reader a rare opportunity to share the career of a professional, but quite human, army officer from the 1850s through Reconstruction and beyond.